


Her Kryptonite

by engineer10349



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-05
Updated: 2016-02-05
Packaged: 2018-05-18 08:22:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,587
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5912980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/engineer10349/pseuds/engineer10349
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Astra gets captured by the DEO and has to live with Alex. Astra/Alex.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Her Kryptonite

Astra had finally been captured. Whether or not it was another trap, nobody could be sure, but regardless she was now in custody. The DEO had wanted to put her back in that cell, but Alex had looked Hank straight in the eyes and said ‘over my dead body’. Alex did not approve of torture, and after she had had time to digest what had happened that day, she grew more and more furious with herself for letting such an atrocity happen. She didn’t want Astra to have to be in the same place that she had been tortured; that seemed like it would be a terrifying experience that she would not wish on anyone.

So Astra was in the full time custody of Agent Alex Danvers. She wore an ankle band of Kryptonite that kept her at human strength and she never went more than 20 feet from Alex. Whenever Astra was at the DEO she always stayed right beside Alex; Alex didn’t like people touching Astra. Obviously Kara could, because Kara loved her aunt and she’d never hurt her (without good reason, anyway), but Alex didn’t trust her own species. They knew Astra had valuable information and she knew what they’d be willing to do to get it. Alex thought it was rather obvious at this point that torture wasn’t even effective, in general or on Astra, but other people still made suggestions in meetings that proved that they had learned nothing. Astra was present at those meetings, standing right behind Alex, and smiled in amusement as Alex always brought up statistics on the lack of impact torture had, and mentioned that there was little point in stopping bad people if they were just going to do bad things themselves.

At home (nobody was sure if it was just Alex’s home or both of theirs by this point) Astra felt relatively secure, enough to move away from Alex’s immediate personal space. She knew that Alex liked to keep her in her line of sight, although she suspected that Alex’s reasoning for that wasn’t entirely due to the security risk. Still, she obeyed the command, and Alex seemed to be trusting her more and more. Things had started off fairly icy; they hadn’t really spoken to each other, they had mostly just watched TV in silence and Alex had occasionally asked Astra what she wanted for dinner. 

Over time things had gradually improved. Alex learned that Astra could cook, and that Astra was vaguely offended that Alex expected her to eat ‘that takeaway crap’ as she put it. Alex secretly loved Astra’s cooking, she thought it was the best thing she’d ever tasted, but every meal she made sure to criticize something like ‘I think it’s just a little too salty’ or ‘it’s nice but McDonald’s would have been faster’. Astra was in no way fooled however, Alex’s face gave away how much she liked it. Astra never said anything though, she found the absurd insults incredibly amusing and tried to guess what Alex would have to say about each meal. 

They had rather different taste in television. Astra missed Kryptonian television, and hence nothing Alex liked was ever good enough for her. Alex had grown to enjoy Astra’s running commentary on her shows, and had even started watching a few just to hear Astra mock them - such as the Bachelor. ‘Why are these women competing over that boring man? On Krypton he would be lucky to find a dog that would tolerate living with him’ was the very first comment Astra had made. Astra had grown to enjoy watching TV, despite the awful content, because Alex sat down next to her and laughed at her jokes/insults, although she’d never tell her that.

On Astra’s first night Alex had been about to set up the couch for Astra to sleep on when Astra casually asked Alex which side of the bed she wanted. “I ... you can sleep on the couch,” said Alex, somewhat shocked.

“The couch? This couch? Why? I’ve seen humans let their dogs in their bed!” said Astra, sounding genuinely hurt.

“Well ... the left side, I like the left side,” said Alex, who was far too tired to argue about it.

“Oh good, I like the right.” Astra had been well aware that human guests usually slept on the couch, but she liked Alex, she’d liked Alex from the moment she’d seen her, and she wanted to get closer to her. She told herself that there was also a distinct political advantage in getting closer to the enemy, in understanding them, and maybe Alex would let something she shouldn’t slip, but she didn’t really mind if none of that happened.

Astra still had nightmares about General Lane. About the feeling of Kryptonite inside of her. About pain so unbearable she had to scream, despite every part of her training telling her not to react. About watching Kara upset, and Alex dragging her away. And yet ironically when she woke up from those nightmares it was Alex holding her, telling her she was safe now. Alex was only a human; it was strange to see her as any kind of protector, but she certainly made her feel better. 

The DEO still wanted information about Astra’s activities, and so she spent an hour each day in interrogation. Alex was there, always right beside her, holding her hand and looking at anyone who implied violence like she was going to murder them. Alex let them hook Astra up to a lie detector though, so although it was rather slow going to only work with yes/no questions, they were getting somewhere. 

After a few weeks, Astra’s people came for her. Alex and Astra were asleep when they heard a loud crashing sound; both of them immediately got up and went to see what it was. Ten Kryptonians vs one Alex wasn’t ever going to go Alex’s way, so she reluctantly surrendered. One of Astra’s people drew their weapons anyway, but Astra quickly stepped in. “She surrendered, she will not be harmed,” Astra ordered. They broke her Kryptonite band off as Astra said, “Bring the human. She has intelligence we could use.” Astra was still to weak to fly, so one of the Kryptonians carried her while another Kryptonian carried an increasingly distressed Alex.

When they finally arrived at Astra’s base, Alex was quick to get out of the strange man’s arms. He moved to recapture her, but Astra stepped in and held Alex’s arm instead. “I’ve got her,” she told her soldier, ignoring the fact that it was really one of her soldier’s who should be holding the prisoner, a General had more important things to do. But now her powers had come back more, she could hear Alex’s scared heart beat, and she knew that when it was Astra who held her, her heart calmed down a lot. Astra decided that she didn’t really need to restrain Alex; Alex was only human and any Kryptonian could capture her within seconds should she try to flee. Astra released her hold but motioned for Alex to follow her, which she did.

Astra spent most of her time in meetings. She would talk to one of her soldiers, give them a full description on what they had to do, and then watch them fly away full of confidence. She would also then see the soldier about a week later, drained of confidence, talking about how Supergirl had thwarted them and how she really was stronger than she looked. Alex found it amusing that her sister was constantly winning against her captors, although she said nothing, and Astra tried to hide her pride at the success of her niece. 

Astra did want all the information Alex had about the humans and her niece, although like Alex she wasn’t prepared to torture for it. She interrogated Alex personally, because she knew that she was the only person in this base Alex wasn’t secretly terrified of, and used her heartbeat as an indication of when she was getting somewhere. Alex stayed very close to Astra at all times. She didn’t need to read minds to know that Astra was the only reason she had gone unharmed. Astra allowed her to stay through conversations Alex really shouldn’t be allowed to hear partly because she was convinced that there was no way anyone could rescue Alex so it didn’t matter and mostly because she saw the sheer terror in Alex’s eyes when she thought she was going to leave her alone with her soldiers and she refused to put Alex through anything like what she had been through.

Non, Astra’s late husband, had ‘committed suicide’ by stabbing ‘himself’ with a Kryptonite dagger. Alex always smiled when Astra told the story though, because people actually seemed to believe it. She did tell it quite passionately, with tears in her eyes, although honestly Alex thought it was a little over dramatic. She knew that Astra had killed Non because there had been a growing faction that thought Non should be in charge, and no leader could tolerate that kind of threat. Alex didn’t really mind that she’d killed him though, he seemed like a pretty bad guy. Also, she was sure that had Non risen to power, he would have had her tortured immediately.

That meant that Alex was free to live in Astra’s quarters with her, which was something they had both gotten used to anyway. Although this time it was Alex who had to adjust. Alex had learned some basic Kryptonese from Kara, but she didn’t understand real Kryptonese at native speed, let alone written Kryptonese. Astra was teaching her, and Astra remained in English while she interacted with Alex, but Alex still felt hopelessly lost. She had never realized just how important it was to be literate. For example, it is helpful to be able to tell a tube of toothpaste from a tube of shaving cream. 

Alex had thrown up the first meal Astra had given her. Astra told her that taste buds changed over time, relatively quickly, and soon enough she’d like the food. Alex didn’t eat for five days, much to Astra’s concern, until she finally tried another meal. She kept that one down, although she looked like she was in pain when she was eating it. Astra was right though; after a month of eating it she found that she rather liked it, and Astra was so relieved to not see Alex choke down a meal three times a day that she didn’t really mind when Alex would steal a few things off her plate. 

Lairs apparently didn’t come with TV reception, nor internet, which Alex found a rather painful transition. Astra taught her a bunch of games from Krypton, and while Alex was absolutely terrible at them, Astra let her win enough of the time that she didn’t mind so much. Astra let Alex call Kara every week, on speakerphone, so that the two of them could let each other know that they were okay. They usually spent a few hours talking, and they would have talked the whole day had it not been for some inevitable emergency requiring Supergirl. Alex had been surprised the day Kara told her that she was moving in with her girlfriend, Cat Grant, but once she did Kara seemed to have even more cheer in her voice, so Alex decided that the relationship was probably a good thing after all.

Every so often one of the soldiers didn’t come back. Killed by Supergirl. Alex had never really thought about what it was like for the other side to take casualties, never really thought of them as real people. But as she got to know them the idea of killing them seemed more and more barbaric. Yes, they were hurting people and needed to be stopped, but there was no reason that they couldn’t be rehabilitated. She saw such goodness in them; they had just been convinced of a bad idea. They were really a lot like her; willing to kill for what they believed. Every time they had a funeral she couldn’t help but think of the people she’d killed, and wondered if it was really necessary. She listened to the other soldiers give speeches about avenging their fallen friends, seething rage burning in their eyes, and she wondered if they understood that continually seeking revenge just caused everyone more pain.

As the months went on, Alex gave up on the idea that Kara was going to come rescue her. Astra and her people far outnumbered Kara, and there really was no way past their defense without an army of super heroes. Alex didn’t really mind anymore though. The Kryptonians had warmed up to her a little now; they said ‘but not you though’ after insulting humans in general, and they used her name instead of ‘the human’ or ‘Astra’s human’. Alex felt safe enough to walk around without clinging to Astra, although she mostly still stayed by her side. Her Kryptonese was good enough to understand most things, although she had an accent and she was confused by certain expressions, which everybody else found incredibly amusing. 

Exactly a year after Astra had taken her, they threw Alex a surprise party. They even brought her gifts (they didn’t mention that they were all stolen). They got her her favorite Earth food (also stolen) and took a few bites of it as a gesture, although most of them quickly spit it out when Alex looked away. Astra pulled Alex aside once people had gone. “Did you like the party?” asked Astra.

“Yeah, it was pretty cool. I’ve never had an anniversary party for a kidnapping before,” Alex said, smiling. She didn’t really feel kidnapped, and yet there was really no other word to use. Sometimes she wondered if it was Stockholm Syndrome, bonding to the people who have captured you, but she really didn’t think so. If she was honest with herself, she liked Astra long before she captured her.

“It was a farewell party, actually. We have interrogated you for long enough, we have run out of things to ask you. You are free to go,” said Astra, trying to remain stoic while feeling crushed. She had gotten so used to having Alex around, she didn’t even know how deeply she cared about her until she realized two months ago the interrogations had stopped being useful. The DEO had changed all of their procedures; nothing Alex knew was valuable anymore. Astra had sat on that information for a while, wanting to keep her human, but eventually she realized that you can’t just kidnap people because you like being with them. So here she was, letting Alex go. The right thing had never felt so wrong to her.

“Oh. Okay,” said Alex, trying to hide her shock. She had been so happy just moments ago, the party had been surprisingly fun, and now she was left feeling empty. She had to leave. She had to leave Astra. She had grown attached to Astra before she had been brought here, but after a year with her she couldn’t imagine being without her. She wondered what she even had to go back to. She didn’t want to go back to the DEO and shoot people. It just didn’t feel right anymore. In fact, the whole premise of an organization dedicated to targeting non-human life was starting to feel a little wrong. But what else could she do?

“I packed up all of your things. I had one of my soldiers fly them to your apartment during the party. Kara is looking forward to seeing you.” Alex had no idea how Astra had pulled all of this secrecy off given that she was with her 99% of the time, and she would have been more curious about how this all happened if she didn’t feel like her heart was being ripped in half. She felt like she was losing her home, and Astra was looking at her like she didn’t even care. She had always felt like there was something between them, although she was never sure, and now she was convinced that she had imagined the whole thing. Astra had just used her for information. Now she didn’t have any information, so Astra was letting her go.

“Fly me home.” It was a soft plea more than anything else, and a somewhat desperate attempt to have just a little more time with Astra. Astra was surprised at the request, but didn’t let it show. She looked into Alex’s eyes and thought she saw her own feelings reflected. She thought she had seen a few looks like that over time, but she wasn’t sure, and given that Alex was her hostage she had never made any kind of advance. 

Astra lifted Alex easily, holding her back and the undersides of her knees as Alex slipped her arms around Astra’s neck. Astra flew much slower than her usual speed, partly because she didn’t want Alex to feel nauseous and partly because she wanted to stretch out the last time she would ever see Alex. Alex held onto Astra and tried to take it all in, appreciate what this was like before it was gone forever, but everything seemed to be going too fast and all she could feel was the growing realization that this was really it. 

They arrived in through an open window. Astra put Alex down gently and before Alex could get the word ‘stay’ out, Astra was gone. Alex saw Kara running towards her and gladly held her tight as she ran into her arms, but it wasn’t the same. She tried to push Astra out of her mind, and listened as Kara talked about everything that had changed since Alex left. They stayed up talking rather late, which wasn’t a problem for Kara since she was Kryptonian, and Alex found the thought of sleep hard without Astra’s arms around her. Tiredness won out though, and at 1 AM she finally fell asleep on the couch. Kara put her in her own bed before she flew back to her girlfriend’s.

Alex did return to the DEO, although she transferred over to the technical side. She was sick of holding a gun, and after a year of not being in any danger the thought of a real combat situation made her incredibly nervous. She felt like she was a rookie again.She didn’t need to get a bunch of people killed because she’d forgotten how to run combat operations. She was already having trouble readjusting to speaking English, eating Earth food, watching TV and imagining what Astra would say, living without Astra ... She really needed to stop thinking about Astra. 

However just a few weeks later Astra’s entire movement offered to surrender in exchange for a guarantee of not being harmed. Astra had sent a message saying that there were ‘certain things’ that had made them reconsider what they were doing, and how they were doing them, and there were ‘certain people they respected’ who thought differently and they realized that maybe they were right. Most of the DEO thought it was a trap, but Alex - the brave agent who had survived a year as their hostage (that’s how people at the DEO talked about it anyway) - said that she thought they were being genuine and this was a great opportunity to get like 20 more superheroes. So they agreed.

Alex had suggested that each Kryptonian got assigned to a human agent, at least for a while, just to help them adjust. And since Alex had a preexisting relationship with Astra, well, she supposed she could be her human. Her superiors thought that that was far too great a sacrifice, that Alex had already suffered a year with those people, that it would prolong trauma that had barely started to heal. But Alex made a great speech about ‘the good of the people’ and how she was ‘willing to make that sacrifice’, so they agreed. The Kryptonians agreed too, although nobody at the DEO could figure out why the Kryptonians kept asking, ‘so Alex is going to be with Astra right?’ It turned out that almost all of Astra’s soldiers shipped them, and honestly they were getting real sick of them not kissing. It was so obvious they liked each other; it was getting painful. They had all subtly been throwing hints at Astra about being able to be her bridesmaid/maid of honor/best man and they were all curious who she’d pick.

That weekend Alex was sitting at home on the couch when she heard a knock. She went to the door but when she opened it there was nobody there. Stupid kids with nothing better to do, she thought. She wondered when she turned into some old person complaining about youths as she sat back down. But she heard the knocking again, and it was a continuous sound this time so she doubted the person was going to suddenly run away. Then she looked around and realized the tapping was coming from her window. There was Astra, waving with a somewhat frustrated look that it had taken this long, hovering just outside her window. Alex opened it and Astra came in, unsure what to say but landed on ‘thank you’. 

Astra stood there quietly then, not that she had even been much of a talker, and closed the window, brushing very close to Alex as she did so. Alex just couldn’t take not knowing anymore, and she had gone without seeing Astra for so long that she just couldn’t push her feelings down like she always had. She leaned in and kissed her, as fast as she could because otherwise she knew she’d lose her nerve, and she felt a wave of relief as Astra kissed her back. Astra quickly used her strength to her advantage and picked Alex up, then walked until she was up against the nearest wall. Alex’s legs wrapped around Astra’s waist instinctively as Alex put her arms around Astra to pull her even closer.

Then suddenly Astra wasn’t kissing her anymore and Alex opened her eyes, wondering how this had all gone wrong in less than 10 seconds. Astra had her hand against the wall next to Alex, although upon closer inspection Alex realized that Astra had accidentally pressed too hard and there was now a hole in the wall. “Don’t worry about it, I have insurance,” said Alex, not at all sure that ‘alien damage’ was covered by her insurance company, but she was sure she could intimidate them into getting them to cover it. Alex tried to kiss her again, but Astra grabbed her chin and held her back with the lightest force she could manage.

“I am grateful that you are unconcerned about property damage, however I am far more concerned about your well being. I could put a hole through you, accidentally of course, instead of this wall,” said Astra, deliberately avoiding eye contact now. Alex was relieved that Astra hadn’t decided she didn’t want her anymore, although she wasn’t immediately sure how to solve this problem. She could see that Astra was in no way willing to risk hurting Alex, even if Alex was willing to take that risk.

“Okay, okay, I hadn’t exactly thought that through. But you’re not going to hurt me just doing this, right? So we can just do this,” said Alex, watching Astra’s gaze slowly come back to her. Astra thought it over for a few seconds, then took her hand off of Alex and onto a part of the wall that was still in tact. She kissed Alex far more deliberately, slower, focusing on pressing against Alex very lightly and not breaking anymore of the wall. 

In between Alex’s brain thinking ‘oh my God’ and ‘I can’t believe this is happening’, Alex remembered that Astra’s super strength had not been an issue last time she was here because of the Kryptonite. She wasn’t sure how Astra would react to the idea though, she didn’t want her to feel like a prisoner. She supposed there was one way to find out. She pulled back a little and Astra completely pulled back. Astra was aware that humans needed to breathe more, and she didn’t want to accidentally suffocate Alex either. “So I’m going to put something out there and it’s okay if you don’t want to do it, it’s just an idea,” Alex started.

“Humans talk too much,” said Astra smiling, although by now Alex knew there was no menace in her words, so she just smiled back.

“Well ... it’s just ... you wouldn’t put holes in the wall, or me, if you weren’t super strong ... and you wouldn’t be super strong if you had ... Kryptonite,” said Alex, her voice getting gradually softer as her sentence went on. Astra looked somewhat offended and Alex was about to start talking again, but then Astra’s analytical mind took over and Alex could see she was thinking about it. 

“That would keep you safe. So I suppose it is agreeable,” said Astra, finding it amusing that after all her resistance to humans, she was now willing to expose herself to Kryptonite for one. She supposed that Alex was her real Kryptonite now; she would do almost anything she asked. Astra had never been in love before, not with her husband and not with anyone else, and that had never really bothered her. But now she understood what love was, there was something terrifying about it. She liked it too much. It was her weakness. Although she supposed that now she had surrendered she didn’t have to think like a General anymore, she could think like a normal person. She could be weak; nobody would die because of it.

It turned out that Alex happened to have some Kryptonite in some kind of safe that prevented it’s effects from leaking out. Astra knew that it was probably a practical idea, having Kryptonite on hand when constantly interacting with Kryptonians, however she couldn’t quite help the doubts that crept back in about humans. Were they just waiting for an excuse to attack, to lock her in another cell and burn her veins with Kryptonite? But she shook off the thought, because this wasn’t some human, this was Alex, and Alex would never do that. 

Astra felt the effects the second Alex opened the safe door. She tried to seem unaffected, but it hurt, and she felt weak. Alex quickly took a small bracelet lined with Kryptonite out and shut the door. Astra felt a lot better, and she wondered just how much Kryptonite Alex felt the need to keep on hand. Alex handed her the bracelet, not wanting to put it on her so that Astra knew that she had the choice. Astra slipped it on without even thinking, and when the metal touched her skin she felt the effect. “Is it enough? Too much?” asked Alex.

“I suppose we have to test it out,” said Astra, lifting Alex up once more. Astra was still strong, but she was certainly exerting more force to get Alex off the ground then she had previously. She pinned her against the wall and this time pushed down on the wall with all of her strength. It didn’t break, it didn’t even dent. She kissed Alex hard, and pushed her body against her without holding back, and if Alex was in any way uncomfortable she certainly didn’t show it. Astra pulled back and Alex held the comment ‘what now?’ because she didn’t want to push Astra into anything, but Astra certainly seemed to be into it, so she wondered what gives. “Yes, I think it is sufficient,” said Astra simply, looking into Alex’s dilated pupils with a smirk before carrying her off to bed.

When Alex woke up the next day Astra was already awake, however she seemed perfectly content to stare at the ceiling while her left arm held Alex closer to her side. Alex rested her head on Astra’s shoulder, so she could see Astra’s eyes without disturbing her. Did she seem sad? She seemed to be thinking, and Alex was almost worried to ask what about, but she figured lack of communication was never a good way to start a relationship. “Hey,” said Alex softly, watching Astra jump slightly at the noise.

“You are awake,” Astra said quietly, seeming more withdrawn than Alex had ever seen her. 

“Is something wrong? You seem ... quiet.”

“You must understand that these kinds of relationships are seen as shameful on Krypton.”

“Same sex relationships?”

“What? No. I meant unmarried couples. On Krypton most people have an arranged marriage. They do not know each other well before marriage, and that is seen as proper.” Alex realized that Astra probably had an arranged marriage to Non, which is probably why they had acted like they didn’t even like each other most of the time. They clearly never grew closer over time, probably because Non was in it for the power and Astra had never shown any interest in men. She wondered why she had agreed to the marriage in the first place. Was he rich? Powerful in his own right? Alex decided it didn’t really matter now. Then she finally processed what Astra was saying and took a few seconds to respond.

“Wow we’ve been together like 12 hours and you want a proposal?” Alex joked, but she saw the hurt in Astra’s eyes. “Whoa, okay, well ... I mean we’ve basically been living together for a year and I really like you ... I love you, actually ... and we could always get divorced if it doesn’t work out so ... okay, marry me,” said Alex, who suddenly realized that this meant they were going to have to tell her whole family as well as the DEO, but decided it would be worth it when she saw Astra’s eyes light up.

“Really?” asked Astra.

“Yes,” said Alex with as much confidence as she could express. Kara was going to freak out. Her mother’s reaction would be interesting. 

“Then my answer is yes. And I love you too,” said Astra, overcome with joy that she was finally getting the ‘happily ever after’ that humans talked so much about. She had always lived for the mission, but now she had something far better to live for.

They decided to tell everybody together, get it all over with in one easy to forget dinner. Alex made sure to stock up on wine so the evening could be tolerable; she had almost always required alcohol when dealing with her mother after she turned 21 (and maybe a little before but that’s beside the point). They had invited Hank, Kara, and Eliza, although Kara called ahead to say she would be coming with Cat, and Eliza had just shown up with some random man named Steve. Hank had shown up with nobody extra and a nice bottle of wine. “I always liked you,” Alex had said when he showed up. He wasn’t entirely sure if she was talking to him or the wine.

Astra had cooked a nice dinner, and was somewhat taken aback by extra people showing up. Alex told her that humans did that sometimes, although it was a little annoying for everyone, and Astra was suddenly very grateful for her heat vision to make some extra portions fast. Once everyone had arrived and was sitting down at the table, and Astra had brought out the food (and the wine, mostly for her fiancee), Alex took a moment to work up the nerve to make the announcement. She had already prepared what she was going to say, but honestly she was a little thrown by a few things, mostly Steve, who felt the need to feed Eliza bite fulls of her own food. “Kara and I are getting married,” Cat said suddenly. 

“Oh sweetheart, that’s wonderful,” said Eliza, and Alex was already reaching for the wine. “I love Cat Co magazines, I can’t believe the CEO is going to be a part of our family,” gushed Eliza, and Alex gulped down Hank’s expensive wine wondering what she was going to say about Astra. 

“Yes, that’s so nice, so I guess Kara will be quitting her job soon so she can raise the kids,” said Steve, who mistakenly thought that anybody wanted his opinion. Alex hated him already. Why did marriage necessarily indicate children? Why did anybody have to quit their job? 

“Absolutely none of that will be happening. Kara likes her job, and she will keep it. I have a son, we have a son, his name is Carter, and we have no immediate plans to expand the family, but I assure you, Stefan, we will keep you apprised,” said Cat, the last part dripping with sarcasm. Alex had never been so convinced that Kara made a good choice with Cat; she might even be friends with Cat one day. Steve huffed but stopped talking. After a few seconds of silence, Alex decided that this was her moment.

“Astra and I are getting married too,” said Alex, squeezing Astra’s hand.

“You what?” asked Hank, who was now reevaluating the money he had spent out of the DEO budget on attempted rescues for Alex. 

“Aunt Astra?” asked Kara, wondering how she was going to explain her family tree now. Did she introduce her as her sister-in-law or her aunt? 

“The terrorist? Who kidnapped you?” asked Eliza, and that’s when Alex decided she needed another glass of wine and poured away. Steve was incredibly confused at this point, but he was staying quiet.

“Would you like some food with your wine?” asked Astra softly, vaguely offended that she wasn’t eating the meal she’d worked hard to prepare.

“Oh, not right now honey,” said Alex quietly as she took a big sip and then put the glass down. “Yes, mum, that’s her. Her name is Astra. It’s really more complicated than you’d like to think, but none of that really matters because I love her.” 

“I ... I just don’t know what you see in her. I think you could do better,” said Eliza.

“Well I don’t know what you see in Stefan here,” began Alex, and she saw Cat smirk at her use of the wrong name, “but I don’t tell you how to live your life. This is not a discussion.”

“So how long have you two been dating?” asked Kara, trying to lighten the tension.

“A few days,” said Astra happily, since that would have been a perfectly common answer on Krypton, but Alex knew the reaction it would get here and she downed the rest of the wine in her glass.

“WHAT? I think you might be rushing things a bit. I mean, maybe you should take some time to get to know the terrorist before you marry her. You know, I just want what’s best for you,” said Eliza, trying to remain calm but quite clearly frazzled. 

“Well I’m an adult capable of making my own decisions, and the wedding is in two weeks,” said Alex.

“Did it occur to you to make sure that I was available on that date?” asked Eliza, seeming offended. This time Astra poured Alex some more wine, because she could hear her heartbeat increase with anger and she just wanted her human to be happy. 

“No, actually, it didn’t occur to me to make my marriage about you; my bad. And honestly, if you are just going to tell me how much you disapprove of my fiancee, don’t bother coming,” said Alex.

“You don’t mean that,” said Eliza.

“Of course I mean that. Why would I want people at an event who are only going to insult me and the person that I love? I love you mum, I do, but that doesn’t mean that I have to put up with this,” said Alex.

“Okay, sweetheart, okay. If you’re happy, I’m happy. We’ll be there,” said Eliza, grabbing Steve’s hand, and Alex didn’t really know why he had to be there but she supposed if she expected her mother to respect her relationship she had to respect her mother’s too. 

“Oh, we’ll be there too,” said Cat, finding this evening even more entertaining than she had anticipated, and looking forward to seeing a little more drama. Kara nodded enthusiastically, realizing that two people she cared about a whole lot were very happy together, and that she was 100% on board.

“I’ll come too if you want,” said Hank, who was the only one who had actually been eating. While he was a little annoyed about potentially wasting departmental resources, he had calmed down once he realized how happy Alex had been for the past few days. 

“I’d love that,” said Alex, who felt a huge sense of relief that everyone was finally on board. She even put the wine glass down and started eating, which made Astra very happy.

Their wedding didn’t go as badly as Alex had feared. The DEO had given Alex papers to falsify Astra’s identity - Astra Inze, American citizen, registered Democrat, born in Kansas, all relatives deceased - which were all accepted without any problems. Almost all of Astra’s former soldiers came to their wedding, most of them were friends of Alex’s now, and they all gave ambiguous speeches that tried to hide the fact that they were aliens although it wasn’t quite as subtle as Alex would have liked. Eliza managed not to tear Alex down for once, although she had brought Steve, so there was that. He was confused as to how Alex knew so many pilots, since almost all the Kryptonians had referenced taking Alex flying, and Alex had to come up with some ridiculous story about how she used to be a pilot and she stayed in touch with a lot of people. But it was all worth it in the end, when they signed the papers and were officially, legally, married. Astra took her wife’s last name, because she figured if she couldn’t have her real name anyway then she wanted Alex’s. It also made her easily identifiable as Kara’s family (although Kara changed her last name to Danvers-Grant), which Astra appreciated. That, and the fact that no human seemed to be able to pronounce her last name right anyway.

Astra and the rest of her soldiers stayed with the DEO to fight hostile threats for them, although they worked covertly. They were not Kara, they were not Supergirl, they were not the ray of sunshine National City wanted in a hero. They were effective, they were battle-hardened, they were willing to kill to protect their people. However they had all come a long way too. They had all forged bonds with at least one human, and quite a few had forged romantic connections. Alex worried sometimes that in a lot of ways nothing had really changed. Even though they had changed sides, in a lot of ways they were doing the same things they did before, just following a different leader. When Alex had seen Astra’s side it had softened Alex, but when Astra had seen her’s her resolve had only strengthened. Astra was willing to do almost anything to protect Alex, and sometimes Alex wished she wasn’t. But Astra was born to be a warrior, and she had never had a stronger reason to fight than Alex, her Kryptonite.


End file.
